#439: Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)

Director: George Armitage
Cast: John Cusack, Minnie Driver & Dan Aykroyd

Martin Blank is a professional assassin whose latest assignment is in his hometown. The twist? It’s the same weekend as his 10^th high school reunion. Nobody in his hometown has known where he’s been since he vanished on the night of the prom, and nobody has wondered where he is more than his high school sweetheart, Debi. When they meet up again, Blank attempts to explain, but he’s really a much better conversationalist when it comes to assassinations. Meanwhile, another assassin has apparently been assigned the same target as Blank, and he’s also trying to coerce Blank into joining his new union for professional hit men.

The only thing that makes this film stand out from others is its script. It’s really two basic films combined (and combined well) with a quirky script tying it all together. Each character delivers great lines. Here are a few to give you an idea:

Marcella: You know, when you started getting invited to your ten year high school reunion, time is catching up.
Martin Q. Blank: Are you talking about a sense of my own mortality or a fear of death?
Marcella: Well, I never really thought about it quite like that.
Martin Q. Blank: Did you go to yours?
Marcella: Yes, I did. It was just as if everyone had swelled.

Marty: I'm a professional killer.

Paul: Do you have to do postgraduate work for that?

Debi: Everybody's coming back to take stock of their lives. You know what I say? Leave your livestock alone.

All in all, it’s a fun movie. Not much to it, though. I put it in the same category as Mickey Blue Eyes, but better. One thumb up.

Fun Trivia (Stolen from IMDB):

• Four of the Cusack siblings are in this movie. John, Joan, Ann and Bill
• Just after Martin has put on his neck tie to go to the reunion there is a poster on the wall for The Clash's "Out Of Control" tour. The score is credited to Joe Strummer of The Clash. Also, as Martin rounds the bend while headed to his locker, there is a banner on the wall "The Future is Unwritten", a Bio-Documentary about Joe Strummer's life released in 2007.
• When Marcella tells Martin about the offer in French about taking out a Greenpeace boat, it's a reference to the 1985 sabotage of the Greenpeace yacht 'Rainbow Warrior' in New Zealand by two French Secret Service agents. The yacht was to lead a fleet to protest French nuclear tests in the Pacific before it was destroyed by the French agents. One Greenpeace photographer died aboard the ship during the sabotage mission.